You knew that I
could not continue to run a brushed motor in my Blade CP, didn’t you?
Life is too short to run motors with brushes. I originally tried a
Himax 2015-4100 that I had laying around.
It was too hot of a wind even with the smallest available 8-tooth
pinion. The head speed was really fast and current draw excessive. I
opted for a Himax 2015-3600 with a 9-tooth
pinion and the results are excellent. Here are the specs on my set-up:

To be able to
use a brushless motor you need to tap into channel 3 on the RX board
inside the 4-in-1 unit. I just soldered in a cut-off servo extension
wire – remember that you do not need to solder in the power wire, just
the signal and ground. You also have to pigtail power and ground from
the ESC power input connector so as to power up the 4-in-1. I
accomplished this by running a second JST connector off of the power
input. You can see in the picture above the double wires, 2-black and
2-red, running out of the power input. One pair goes to the ESC and one
plugs into the 4-in-1 power input connector.

The motor
installation is simple. You can use a Himax
speed 370 adapter disc or just Dremel away a
little plastic so that the motor flange fits in the slot. Then bolt in
place from the bottom ensuring that the gear mesh is OK. Make sure to
get a Himaxx 20 mm heat-sink and install it
with some heat-sink paste to ensure contact. This motor will get warm
so use a heat-sink and paste! You can get the paste from Radio Shack.

While I was at
it I bought two new 3s 900 mahLiPo packs since my old
Etecs were about dead. These new packs are lighter and put out
much better power than ye olde first-genEtecs. The head-speed when going to
“idle-up” is higher than with the brushed setup. This gives better
stability without an increase in sensitivity. The duration is very good
as well. I have not timed my flights, but 15-minutes
is probably about right. The little bird has
more power than I know what to do with given my skills. Jamming the
collective up with send her rocketing skyward! I live in a crowed
subdivision and this little chopper is just what I needed to be able to
fly in the backyard. When the wind calms down I’m out harassing the
neighborhood pet population.

Head SpeedBetter head speed means better
stability. Converting to brushless will give you more headspeed in
idle-up mode and better stability.

Two Wires You only need to run the signal and
ground wire out to the brushless ESC. The 4-in-1 is powered up by
the battery connection.

9-Tooth PinionI found my 9-Tooth pinion at TowerHobbies.
It is an HPI product and is a slip fit with an allen set-screw.